[Identification of patients' needs and expectations in a cataract clinic connected with a university public hospital].

Purpose: To identify patients' needs and expectations in a cataract clinic connected with a university public hospital--Cataract Institute--Department of Ophthalmology--Paulista School of Medicine (UNIFESP).

Method: A descriptive transverse study was carried out with the patients enrolled in the clinic, distributed in two groups: those who were operated on and those who were not. Patients were approached in two stages: 1) conduct the study in four focus groups to identify the patients' most valued attributes (qualitative study); 2) a questionnaire was designed based on the main attributes and was submitted to a sample of patients (quantitative study).